Design is going backwards. No longer are people striving for the lights and multiple buttons, but for a more retro looking gadget. This is where Fuji has really taken hold of the market. Their leading X series cameras are exactly that. They’re great cameras filled to the brim with features, with a style that will appeal to a whole range of users.
The X20 supports a 1/2–inch sensor and bright F2 wide angled lens. The sensor is a 12 megapixel sensor so blowing up images for print will be no problem at all. Having such a large lens lets a lot of light into the camera, giving sharp and vivid images. These features followed by Fuji’s classic style, and improved filters makes this camera one of the best we’ve seen at a compact level.
A nice feature is the camera’s OVF (optical viewfinder). This gives the user the chance to still take photos on a bright summer’s day. No more will you be affected by that annoying glare on the screen. The viewfinder also has a sensor embedded which detects when in use. Once it can feel and see your eye around the area, the screen will automatically turn off, saving crucial battery life. Inside the lens is a very thin transparent layer which displays all your important information for taking a picture. These are your aperture, shutter speed and white balance. Very useful for changing settings on the fly while on a shoot.
Another great feature of this camera is the leaf shutter. Leaf shutters can make the camera produce sharper images, as there are far less vibrations when taking a photo. They also do not make noise when closing. Shutter speed is great. It has a shutter speed of 1 second so shooting frame after frame doesn’t cause many problems with the everyday photographer, but unfortunately may not be quite fast enough for your paparazzi.
The face detection and AF tracking functions work extremely well compared to its predecessors. The camera can produce a huge amount of colour with colour filters able to be used for your more complex shots like portraits. My personal favourite is the Astia colour setting giving a softer look, especially with skin tones.
This Fuji camera is definitely a contender for my top spot of compact cameras. I can’t think of much that will let the camera down, apart from the high end ISO levels being slightly too noisy for my liking. When we first received the camera to review the common phrase style over substance came to mind. Unfortunately we cannot apply it to this situation. Need a memory card largest enough to hold your photos? Then check out the new 128gb Sandisk Memory Card
